The Keybearer's Keychains
by Vibranch
Summary: So many Worlds, and so many people. Each one was unique and an adventure to Sora. But one thing that was constant on his journey, was the keychains he received. An exploration of Sora's thoughts, experiences, and feelings for each keychain he received during his first journey.
1. Jungle King, Lady Luck, and Fairy Harp

**The Jungle King**

This was the first Keychain Sora was gifted. At first Sora didn't really understand what it was. A token from Tarzan to remember him by, presumably. But why a thin vine tied to a preserved butterfly?

It wasn't until Goofy mentioned that it looked kind of like a keychain that Sora began to understand why Tarzan gave it to him.

Tarzan, being so inquisitive, was no doubt intrigued by Sora's Keyblade. The jangling of the Keychain equipped to the bottom of it must have caught his eye in particular. So just as Sora was about to leave Deep Jungle with Donald and Goofy, Tarzan appeared and presented the, now dubbed Jungle King, keychain to him.

One day, mostly out of curiosity, Sora attached the gift to his Keyblade. He was amazed to find it had changed shape just moments after it was attached. Not only that, the very materials it was made from seemed to change too! His formerly metal weapon now seemed to have been carved from wood!

At first, Sora loved the Jungle King keychain. It served well in its duty to remind Sora of Tarzan. But after a while, and as more and more Keychains were collected, it started to become less special to him.

Especially on one day.

While attempting the Pegasus Cup, Sora felt something in his shoulder. He could feel it, small and round, moving slightly inside him as he swung his Keyblade. It made him uneasy and he couldn't focus on the match at hand. Something the Heartless in the arena took full advantage of. He might have died, or lost his heart, had Donald and Goofy not been his side and ready to jump to his rescue.

"What is this thing," Sora complained after the match, poking at it gingerly. It seemed to be buried underneath a messy scar.

It took Donald a minute, but eventually he recognized it. "It's a bullet. Remember? When we fought Clayton and he shot you?"

That's right… Sora hadn't known cure yet. So when Donald instinctively cast the spell on Sora, the wound must have healed over the bullet. It was the first actual gun Sora had ever seen. Nothing like Leon's Gunblade. Sora thought Clayton used some kind of magic when he'd gotten hit by it.

Looking at his collection of Keychains, the Jungle King stood out to him for all the wrong reasons now. Just a little closer to the center of his body and Sora would be dead now. Not a Heartless, just dead. And so close to what he could now realize was only the beginning of his adventure.

Too often, just the sight of Jungle King Keychain reminded Sora of Clayton and the bullet lodged in his shoulder, and not his friend Tarzan. And so, it was the first Keychain that Sora decided to retire. Left to sit in a drawer in his room onboard the Gummi Ship.

The first to be given, and the first to be given up.

* * *

**The Lady Luck**

"Is that… A playing card?" Donald raised an eyebrow as Sora pulled the object out from the chest.

"Not just any playing card, it's the Ace of Hearts." Goofy answered. "Say, uh, is it weird that a playing card is the last thing I'd expect to find on this world?" Goofy asked, scratching the side of his head with one finger.

Sora had to agree with him. Despite long since accepting that Wonderland was more a land of oddities than wonder, Sora certainly didn't expect to find an actual playing card in this world. What would the Queen of Hearts or any of the playing card soldiers have to say if they saw him with this?

Feeling the card, it was made of the same materials as the rest of the card soldiers. Sora had learned what they felt like after shoulder bashing one of them, back when he was trying to help Alice get out of her cage.

A chill ran up Sora's spine. Was this card the Wonderland equivalent of walking around with a toy soldier, or a shrunken head? Maybe a toy soldier made of human flesh?

Sora shook his head, hoping he could shake out these thoughts. He felt like he'd finally found something that would disturb the people of this world as he tucked it into his pocket.

"Best to not let anyone from around here see this," Sora said

With not much to do with a single playing card, Sora fashioned it into a Keychain for him to use. Wielding the Keyblade with it, Sora felt like he had all the magic of Wonderland on his side as he fought. Not even the Spellbinder keychain that Merlin gave him compared to the magic inside this form the Keyblade took.

"It's almost like Lady Luck was lookin' out for ya when you found it!" Goofy said as they walked back to the Gummi Ship.

Indeed. If it hadn't been for that Trinity mark on the ground, Sora would have passed right by it. Just as he'd done every other time he'd gone to Wonderland.

"You might be right." Sora said as he took another look at it. "In fact, you might have even come up with a good name for it, too!"

"Gwarsh, I did?" Goofy exclaimed. "What'd I call it?!"

Sora looked at the new form the Keyblade had taken. _Lady Luck._

* * *

**The Fairy Harp**

There were two interesting aspects about this keychain. First, it was the last Keychain Sora had received as a gift from visiting a brand new world. The second interesting aspect was that he'd gotten it from Tinker Bell instead of Peter Pan.

Sora expected some sort of charm or trinket from Peter as goodbye. Most places he went to, where he made new friends, usually ended that way. But Peter surprised him.

"Oh, boy. She's gettin' steamed again. Do me a favor. Look after her for me, will ya?"

It took Sora a moment to realize he was talking about Tinker Bell. "What?!" Sora gaped at the ridiculous request. His parents back on the Islands wouldn't even trust him with a pet, much less a fairy.

_She's a person, right? Just very small and can fly. Is Tinker Bell even okay with this?_ Sora thought to himself.

But Tinker Bell was a jealous fairy, specifically of Peter and Wendy, and she must have thought Peter would get just as jealous as her if she went traveling the worlds with another boy.

At least that's what Sora assumed. He couldn't understand Tinker Bell's fairy speak. So, any attempt at communicating with her left him feeling like he was talking to a ringing bell.

Regardless of if her ploy worked, Tinker Bell took some insurance with her.

Peter Pan's signature red feather.

She stole it right off the top of his hat as she flew into the Gummi Ship. No one even noticed until they were halfway to Traverse Town.

Onboard the Gummi Ship, Sora studied the red feather. Realizing that he could turn it into a keychain, Sora got to work affixing a makeshift chain to it from parts he'd bought from Donald's nephews.

The group watched with excitement as the Keyblade changed shape. All of them waiting in anticipation on what kind of form would it take.

The form it decided on was closer to a Key-tooth pick than a Key_blade_. The thing was tiny, and Donald raised an eyebrow at it. "You sure you can fight with that?"

"Uhh, shouldn't be too big of a deal." Sora said. The Keyblade had taken many shapes and lengths before, but usually it kept his foes at greater distance away than this. "Peter could fight just fine with his dagger. Maybe it's length is in reference to that."

Donald spun in his chair to resume piloting the Gummi Ship. "If you say so. But you'd better practice with it before you take it to someplace with any real danger."

Sora made a pouty face at the back of Donald's head. "I'll be just fine using the Keyblade in this form."

Stepping in before anymore tension could grow, Goofy spoke up. "Whaddya want to call it?" Goofy asked. Ever the fun one, Goofy kept Sora company on the long flight back as they tossed names back and forth.

* * *

Deciding on the name _Fairy Harp_, Sora ultimately didn't use this keychain very much. Firstly because, as Donald suspected, it was too small. On more than one occasion, Sora would fall flat on his face as he tried to fight with it.

Sora was so used to throwing all his weight behind his moves that when he switched to the Fairy Harp and his swing came up short, the momentum behind each swing would often cause Sora to fall on his face. A fact Donald found hilarious. Sora, less so.

The second reason being that Tinker Bell missed Peter more than she wanted to let on. Often when Sora went to grab the feathered keychain, Tinker Bell had already taken it from his room and flown off with it to someplace inside the Gummi Ship.

On the days where Sora was determined to use the Fairy Harp, he'd track her down and find her huddled with it, thinking of Peter and the secret hideout filled with all the Lost Boys.

Not that she could tell that to Sora. Only Peter Pan could understand her fairy speak. And she didn't want to appear ungrateful at the opportunity to visit other worlds with this unlikely trio, but sometimes she couldn't help herself from getting like this.

Fortunately, Sora could recognize the feelings of missing home, even if they couldn't be said out loud. So even when he was determined to use the Fairy Harp, if he found that Tinker Bell had taken it for herself then Sora would let her have it.

Ultimately, Tinker Bell was far more useful as a companion than any single keychain would be on their journey. With Donald's help she'd learned to preform Cure magic, and the mage even taught Sora how he to summon her from within the Gummi Ship for moments when they needed her help.

* * *

Sora looked over at the tiny fairy hovering between him and Peter Pan. As if sensing his gaze, she turned from the conversation she was having with Peter to look back at him.

Now that they had finally tracked down and defeated the Heartless they'd dubbed 'The Phantom', there wasn't much reason to stick around on this World. But still, there was one more thing he had to do before leaving this world again.

"Ready to go home, Tinker Bell?" Sora offered. Fully expecting her to get excited and maybe wish him a farewell in those ringing tones he'd gotten used to hearing.

Instead, the small glowing fairy floated up to Sora's eye level and stomped her foot against nonexistent ground as shook her head firmly.

"No? But I thought you missed home?" Sora was confused. Tinker Bell seemed so excited to be back when their Gummi Ship pulled into her home World.

She seemed to be trying to explain herself, but once again Sora couldn't understand a word of her bell-like fairy speak.

"It sounds like she wants to make sure you're okay for the last leg of your journey," Peter translated. He floated down from the top of Big Ben and listened to Tinker Bell go on. "I don't really understand most of it, she's talkin' 'bout a lot of people I've never met. But she really wants to help when you take on some guy called Ansem."

Sora looked back at Tinker Bell still floating in front of his face, just as she did when Peter first asked him to take her along with him.

Tinker Bell said more that Sora couldn't understand, but fortunately Peter was still there to translate.

"Don't forget, the Princesses said that once all the worlds are restored everyone will be returned to their original world. I'll still be able to go home."

Peter stopped translating and moved closer to talk to Tinker Bell directly. "Hey Tink, it sounds like Sora's going to be facing some real tough challenges. You take care of him okay?"

Tinker Bell nodded.

"Pack them some extra pixie dust, just in case!"

Tinker Bell rolled her eyes but smiled as well. It wasn't like Peter to get overprotective. Maybe fighting the Phantom with Sora and the others was making him more worried than usual? Regardless, Tinker Bell said one more thing to Peter before flying over and taking her place next to Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

"Hey, Sora," Peter called out as the group started moving to the Gummi Ship. "Tink says that you're her friend, so she wants you to call her Tink as well. Y'know, just like me!"

Sora looked at the little fairy. Sora chuckled slightly and smiled at her. "Tink, huh? No problem!

* * *

Sora and Tinker Bell watched from inside the cockpit of the Gummi Ship as Peter waved goodbye to them. "Hey Tink! When you get back, me and all the Lost Boys are going to throw you a big welcome home party! So, make sure you're prepared to tell us lots of stories when you get back!

Tinker Bell nodded from behind the glass and watched him continue to wave goodbye until even the smallest green speck of him was gone.

Sora looked at the fairy and cracked a smile. "Hey, Tinker Bell- I mean Tink…" Tinker Bell turned away from the glass that separated everyone in the cockpit from Gummi Space. "Thanks for coming with us."

She shined a little brighter and smiled back at him.

"And I hope you're prepared for the last leg of our journey, because I think we'll be needing your help."

This time she smirked and gave him a confident nod.

* * *

Author's Notes: Hoo boy, this has been something I've worked on for a quite awhile now (just about non-stop for two months exactly). I hope you found these first three keychain stories interesting. I'll be back with more very soon. But in the meantime if you want to let me know what you've thought so far, then I would greatly appreciate it! Either way, have a wonderful day!


	2. Olympia, Spellbinder, and Wishing Star

Author's Notes: Welcome back! If you're reading this, then you must have enjoyed the previous section at least somewhat.

I want to leave a little thank you to TheLoneStar who I should have thanked at the end of the last chapter. He was a big help while I was writing these mini-stories. Especially to the Fairy Harp. That keychain probably went through the most changes compared to the original draft out of all of these and it would have been much worse without his help.  
That being said I'm going to leave little thoughts on the keychains I've written about at the end of every chapter. So if you'd like to read a little bit of the behind the scenes don't click away as soon as you finish.

* * *

**The Olympia**

There were five keychains Sora earned during his trips to Olympus Coliseum. They were the Metal Chocobo, Lionheart, Diamond Dust, One-Winged Angel, and, of course, the Olympia.

One could argue that all five of these keychains were trophies. Each one was proof that he'd defeated a seemingly insurmountable foe. But to Sora, the Olympia was the finest example of a keychain trophy that he could think of.

It took a combination of his, Donald, and Goofy's strength for them to not only beat every tournament Phil threw at them, but together they even managed to push the solid cement block that Phil had asked Sora to move when they first arrived.

The three of them were shocked to discover the block they pushed aside hid Olympus's Keyhole.

"Talk about, hidden in plain sight," Goofy said, shortly after Sora finished sealing it.

Sora felt a shiver as he thought of all the Heartless he'd fought during the Games. They were all just a room away from bringing about the end of this World.

Despite Heartless's proximity however, Sora eventually decided that Olympus's Keyhole was probably the safest one in all the Worlds he visited. Any Heartless that tried to get to it was probably stopped at the seemingly immovable block in the way. And even if one was strong enough to move it, it would have to deal with Hercules, Cloud, or any other hero that was in the area to attend the Games.

Strangely with the Keyhole officially locked, the chest on the other side of the room would only now allow itself to be opened. Sora had long since made it a tradition to tap his Keyblade against it every time he entered and exited the lobby of the coliseum. But in all those previous attempts, the Keyblade's usual power over locks failed.

Now it opened without any fuss. Sora could only guess that _maybe_ the Keyhole was causing some kind of interference, although it was probably impossible to know for sure now.

Regardless, once opened Sora found what he would eventually call the Olympia keychain inside. Although the chain was something Sora would add later. Right now, it was just a medallion with a cloud and bolt of lightning engraved on it.

Sora cherished the medallion. It was a trophy. Physical proof of the strength that he had gained and the improved friendship between him, Donald, and Goofy.

Alone, none of them would have moved the stone cube. Together they could do just about anything.

And Sora had a feeling that the next world was going to be a challenge.

The Darkness was getting stronger the further out they traveled. If he was being honest, whatever was coming next, whatever lay beyond Neverland, the level of Darkness that he might face next, scared him.

But he took comfort knowing that whatever bastion of Darkness that might lie out there, he'd always have Donald and Goofy by his side. There was nothing the three of them couldn't handle.

Sora gripped the handle of the Keyblade tighter and silently thanked it for choosing him.

* * *

**The Spellbinder**

Merlin looked in awe as Sora demonstrated his proficiency in all seven spells. "By George, you've done it!" He exclaimed.

Sora laughed in self-satisfaction. "Yeah, I guess I'm about as good as Donald now."

Donald rolled his eyes. "Keep telling yourself that."

"Well, I don't know about that," Merlin answered diplomatically. "But you certainly deserve a reward for all your hard work." Merlin closed the spell book he and Donald had been using to teach Sora spells and began to shrink it down. "There you are, my lad! A new keychain for your Keyblade! That is, if you've got the materials to make a chain for it."

Sora reached into his pocket and pulled out a clip and chain. "You had to ask? Give me some credit!"

Everyone in the room waited in anticipation as Sora go to work, carefully turning the miniaturized spell book into a keychain for his Keyblade.

* * *

When it came to learning spells, Sora couldn't ask for much better teachers. Under Donald's tutelage fire spells came surprisingly natural to him. And by the time Sora had sealed the Keyhole in Wonderland he'd even mastered using the most basic form of blizzard.

Thunder and cure were a bit more difficult for Sora to learn. But he'd met Merlin by this point, and with the combined teachings of both Donald and Merlin, those spells eventually became second nature to him as well. Though it took a few dozen lessons.

For thunder, it finally clicked just before Sora took on Cerberus. Something that came as a relief to him, as his blizzard spells couldn't reach the three headed dog, and he had a feeling the beast from the Underworld would only be reminded of home if he hit it with a fire spell.

Cure remained elusive to Sora for even longer. Donald was comfortable just casting cure for Sora and having Goofy stuff his pockets with potions. It wasn't a perfect solution, but Donald was fine with it.

Until Sora was shot by Clayton.

None of them had been prepared for the immediate stopping power of a shotgun. That combined with the large Stealth Sneak Heartless that had formed from the Darkness in Clayton's Heart, had been the closest to defeat the three of them ever came to.

Donald was surprised at just how protective he felt over Sora. When they'd first crash landed on Deep Jungle, he was done with Sora's childish behavior. If he had found the Gummi Ship before he'd found Sora, he would've had half a mind to take off without him.

But as Donald stood over Sora, his shoulder blown out from buckshot, what surprised Donald the most was that he didn't feel angry. He felt panicked. Horrified even. Hurriedly he cast a cure spell over the wound, barely paying notice as Goofy and Tarzan fought off Clayton's attention. Instead he watched carefully as the skin stretched itself back into place, leaving behind a messy scar.

Sora, for whatever reason, didn't seem to notice how bad the situation had gotten. Maybe he'd gone into shock and didn't notice how bad the wound was? But the event was still fresh in Donald's memory. He forced Sora to learn cure. Even going so far as refusing to fly the ship until he was confident Sora could do it for himself.

* * *

Stop, Gravity, and Aero were more advanced spells that took Sora longer to master.

Since all the spells Sora knew so far were offensive magic and Donald didn't want to risk another Clayton event. Donald and Merlin fashioned a curriculum to teach Sora Aero as a simple defensive spell. It was easier to learn than Reflect, but controlling the wind around one's body was still more complicated than shooting fire or ice from the Keyblade.

In contrast to the defensiveness of Aero, Gravity was the most dangerous spell Sora learned. Donald warned him not to use it lightly, but Sora only saw it as Donald being overprotective.

"Why? What's the worst that could happen?" Sora asked, rolling his eyes. "Make your body feel a little heavier than usual for a bit?"

Donald could see Sora wasn't taking him very seriously. Donald considered that what Sora needed was an example, not a warning.

Swiftly spinning on one foot, Donald pointed his staff at an old wardrobe Merlin had set up in his magic practice room. "Force!"

The wardrobe crumpled underneath the sudden appearance of a dark orb of magic. Donald turned back to Sora, a self-satisfied smile covered his face as he looked upon Sora's face of shock. "No, it could crush your bones."

* * *

Stop was the most complicated spell Sora learned. He could only take so many lectures from Donald and Merlin about the supposed _basics_ of time. More often than not, he just nodded his head along and waited for them to finish. He found it was easier to just try and preform the spell than trying to understand how exactly it worked.

But after a while, the spell became second nature to him. While practicing on Merlin's furniture, Sora would know if the spell had been successful if the furniture didn't move when he smacked it. The Heartless moved around much more frequently, so it was easier to tell when the spell worked against them.

* * *

Sora clicked his new keychain into place. As with all the others, the Keyblade's original keychain disappeared to make room for this new one. The old tome Donald and Merlin had been reading from to teach him his spells hung gently in the air.

Almost instantly the Keyblade changed shape. A large blue blade with an astronomical tool replacing the teeth grew from it. Memories of Sora learning his spells flooded through everyone as they looked at it. In that sense the keychain was already working as a memento to days gone by. Sora could swear he even felt extra magical power working through it in this form.

He turned to Merlin, "Thank you for the keychain."

"Thank you for being such a good student, m'boy!"

A grin spread across Sora's face as he looked at Donald and Goofy. He could still feel the powerful magic this keychain granted. "I'm going to have fun with this thing," he said in a tone that made Donald and Merlin fear for even the Heartless.

* * *

**The Wishing Star**

"Gwarsh, yer gettin' yourself a lotta these little doodads, ain'tcha?" Goofy asked as the trio stepped out of the house Leon had set up for Pinocchio and Geppetto.

Sora examined the star shaped ornament in his hand. "Yeah, I just thought I'd get one or two more after Tarzan gave me the first one. Didn't think I'd end up with so many."

"Geppetto's a carpenter, right?" Donald began. "Why do you think he carved you a star?"

"I don't know…" Sora rubbed his chin as he wondered. Donald was right, Geppetto was a skilled carpenter, he'd even crafted Pinocchio. So why did Geppetto gift Sora with something as irrelevant as a star? He could have made anything. A whale would've been fitting, to call back to their time together in Monstro.

Sora didn't really want to turn around and ask Geppetto why he gave him a star. He worried he might misphrase the question and appear ungrateful at the gift.

A small voice interrupted Sora's thoughts. "I might be able to answer that!" It came from Sora's hood. Jiminy Cricket, the group's rarely appearing fourth member of the party hopped onto Sora's shoulder to answer Donald's question.

"You see, Geppetto wished on a wishing star for a son and a kind Blue Fairy heard it. So, she appeared and granted his wish by giving one of his puppets a Heart."

Goofy's gaze fell to the star in Sora's hand. "D'ya think that's why Geppetto made that keychain for Sora? In memory of that?"

"I'd bet so," Jiminy answered. "If it wasn't for that star, why, Geppetto wouldn't have a son. And if it wasn't for Sora and the rest of us, Riku might've taken off with Pinocchio and left Geppetto all alone again."

Sora looked down at the star in his hand again, his grip tightening on it. It was a lot to think about. Sora was glad Geppetto and Pinocchio could be together again. He was glad he was the one to make sure it happened.

But it also made him wonder if the same would ever happen to him. Would he ever be together with Riku and Kairi again? Riku had said something inside Monstro that left Sora feeling extra worried about Kairi.

Sora snapped out of his thoughts to see worried looks from Donald and Goofy, no doubt because the normally talkative and hyperactive boy they spent so much time with was suddenly so solemn and quiet.

Sora turned towards Donald. "Hey, do you think we can stop at Huey, Dewey, and Louie's shop before we go? I want to buy some more hooks to hang my keychains on," he said before any of them had a chance to ask him if he was alright.

"You need more?!" Donald exclaimed. His worry disappearing now that Sora was returning to his normal self.

"Just one or two more, I'm getting low!" Sora argued. "I know we can afford it."

Donald let out a weary sigh, "Okay, sure. But the no family discount policy those boys have really adds up." Donald began counting on his fingers. "Between those hooks, potions, ethers, the occasional staff and shield…" Donald interrupted himself as he wildly shook his head. He didn't dare to think about it anymore, the numbers just kept getting higher and higher in his head.

Sora took a moment to look back at the once abandoned house. It felt so much more alive now. Sora had barely noticed it before. Now he wasn't certain if he'd ever be able to not notice it.

* * *

As the Gummi Ship flew through space, Sora finished hanging his new keychain to the wall. Donald flew the ship towards Olympus Coliseum. They'd heard that a new tournament, the Pegasus Cup, had opened up and Sora decided that was the perfect place to try out the Keyblade's new form.

The hum of the spacecraft filled his cabin with a comforting ambiance. So far it had been an uneventful flight with no bumps or Heartless in sight, and Sora hoped it would stay that way.

Sora stared at his newest keychain as he sat on his bed. So much had happened in Monstro and that he hadn't really processed yet. Then again, a lot happened on every world he went to.

But Sora never expected to be eaten by a giant whale of all things! A giant whale in _space_ for that matter! And if he somehow _had_ expected that, then finding Riku inside Monstro as well would still have been completely unexpected.

Sora stood up and peeked out of his room, making sure Donald and Goofy weren't about to check in on him from around the corner. They liked doing that. Sora supposed it made sense though. They all got banged around quite a bit on their adventures, so it was only natural they'd want to check in occasionally and make sure everyone was still alright.

When Sora was satisfied that the coast was clear, he turned around and fell on his bed. It wasn't just being swallowed by a whale or finding Riku again that Sora needed to process. It was something Riku had said that bothered him.

"_Not many puppets have Hearts. I'm not sure, but maybe he can help someone who's lost theirs."_

Sora rolled over as he played the words in his head over and over again. There was a sinking worry in Sora's stomach that Riku was talking about Kairi. But when Sora tried to confront him on it Riku just remained silent.

Sora had hoped puppets with Hearts was a common thing on Jiminy's World and Riku just didn't know what he was talking about. But it looked like even on the World Pinocchio had come from, living puppets were an uncommon thing.

Sora looked at his new keychain hanging on the wall. Jiminy's story of Geppetto wishing on a star to give Pinocchio a heart replayed in his mind.

Clasping his hands together, Sora whispered a wish from the bottom of his Heart to the star hanging on his wall. It was childish, but Sora hoped that his own Wishing Star would be able to grant it regardless.

"_Please let Kairi be okay…"_

* * *

Author's Notes: And chapter 2 is done. Once again, I hope you'll let me know what you thought.

All three of these went through a number of drafts before I was happy with them. But I'd say the Spellbinder was the hardest, just because I was writing seven smaller stories within it. Wishing Star also gave me a lot of trouble when I first started writing this. At first I wanted to point out how the Namine makes the Oathkeeper look like the Wishing Star in Re:COM, but I just couldn't make it work since that takes place after KH1 and it was causing me to ignore Geppetto and Pinocchio. Olympia also took a while to write, but was mostly smooth sailing compared to the other two. Ultimately I'm really happy with all three


	3. Crab Claw, Oblivion, and Lionheart

The Crab Claw

It was kinda funny that one of the most unique Worlds Sora visited, gave him the most mundane keychain he'd receive. Just a plain looking seashell.

"Just a little something to remember us by." Ariel said to Sora as he was about to leave. Of course, Sora wasn't going to say no to it. A gift was a gift, and it housed the feelings of friendship that had grown between them.

Ariel had no way of knowing Sora had grown up on an island. He'd collected hundreds of seashells over the years, and the one she gave him would be easily lost if he placed it next to his old collection.

Sora spent the majority of the flight back to Traverse Town converting it into a keychain for his Keyblade. And although he thought the new form his Keyblade took was pretty, he worried what Sebastian would say if he saw a crab was being used as the teeth of the key. For Sebastian's feelings, Sora made a mental note to not use this keychain if he ever went back to Atlantica.

For the most part, Sora was content to leave the Crab Claw hanging in his room. It was one of his lesser used keychains, though it was never truly retired. Thus, it was spared from the drawer in his room that all retired keychains ended up, but the plain looking keychain also meant Sora rarely pulled it off the wall for an adventure.

So there it stayed, serving its original duty fine as a reminder to Sora of everything that happened in Atlantica and all the inhabitants who lived there.

* * *

The Oblivion

At what point had Sora's playful rivalry with Riku stopped being quite so playful? It was a question Sora had asked himself multiple times on his journey across Worlds. He wanted to blame Maleficent, but that wasn't entirely true.

She had certainly made things worse, but the actual deterioration of their friendship had started before they'd even begun building the raft. In the past, Riku would occasionally tease Sora, and Sora usually didn't mind. But Riku had been doing it more often lately, and it didn't _feel_ like teasing to Sora anymore.

Sora knew Riku was always better at things than him. Riku was faster, Riku was stronger. And everytime Sora struggled to think of a comeback to one of Riku's jabs, he realized Riku was cleverer than him too.

Sora felt like he was nothing more than a measuring stick to Riku. Someone for him to stand by, so others could see how impressive Riku was by comparison.

Not to long after the raft building began, Sora felt the need to keep score of how many times he or Riku won at something. But that only made Sora feel more desperate to beat Riku. Every time Sora failed to measure up to Riku, everytime Riku smirked or said something to showboat his victory, it felt more like he was twisting a knife. And despite how much it hurt, Sora still kept track of the increasingly large divide between the two of them.

There was one thing that Riku said that really got under Sora's skin. "How about it, Sora? The winner gets to share the Paopu with Kairi?"

Why would he say that? Sora didn't know how to respond when Riku asked him that. Riku definitely knew about Sora's feelings towards Kairi, he had teased him about the fruit the evening before.

Sora just wanted the race to be fun. But it wasn't. Not after Riku said that. Riku didn't even give Sora the right to feel upset about it, instead claiming it was just a joke.

Sora worried it was his fault that things had gotten so bad. Was it his fault for noticing that Riku won more often than not? Was it his fault for letting Riku get to him? They were friends, right?

All these questions rose up again when Sora found a pitch-black crown keychain in Hollow Bastion. It was a mirror image of the crown necklace he wore. The dark side to the silver lined one around his neck.

Sora thought that he should've been disturbed by it. The form the Keyblade took when hooked up to it was frightening. Something about the teeth of this Keyblade forced the word _Darkness_ into his head.

The Keyblade's new form was trying to be a reminder of his time as a Heartless or maybe a reminder of Riku who gave into his Darkness.

Somehow Sora didn't care. It was reminding him of his friend. And he wanted his friend back. He wanted to be able to hang out with Riku again without feeling like he _had_ to win the next competition. Without feeling like he was being secretly judged or talked down to or belittled.

No, he realized, he didn't just want his friend Riku back. What he really wanted back was his friendship _with_ Riku. And now he was going to have to fight for it. Fight both the Darkness infesting Riku, and the Darkness inside himself that fueled his insecurities.

* * *

The Lionheart

By all accounts, Leon was Sora's opposite. He was quiet, withdrawn, and he had difficulty showing any sign of human emotion, much less positive emotion. Really, Sora should have disliked him from the personality clash alone. But instead, Sora couldn't help but respect him.

Leon had arrived in Traverse Town under similar circumstances as Sora. He'd lost his world and most of everyone he'd ever known. But even without a Keyblade, Leon was strong, and perhaps more importantly, he was able to make a difference in people's lives.

The King respected him enough to make sure Donald and Goofy's first stop of their journey was to see Leon, everyone in Traverse Town looked to him as a leader, he'd even found Pinocchio and Geppetto a place to live.

Sora didn't know how he could ever compare to that. No matter what he might accomplish, someone else might look over to Leon and see all the similar things he'd done. And he'd done it without a Keyblade.

Maybe other people weren't doing that, Sora hoped that might be true. But if Sora was already comparing himself to Leon, what were the odds that he was the only one making these comparisons?

Maybe that was why it was only after Leon said something at the end of the Pegasus Cup that Sora noticed just how much stronger he'd become.

Leon pressed his hand firmly into Sora's shoulder as Donald and Goofy celebrated their victory. "Good job."

It was the usual kind of Leon statement. Simple and efficient. And yet his tone said so much more those two words did. There wasn't any resentment in it. Sora was surprised by how graciously he accepted his defeat.

Sora still half-expected Leon to spout something about how he let Sora off easy this time or that he'd gotten lucky. But instead, he stopped, turned around, and told Sora, "You've gotten stronger. Keep it up."

And then he went on his way again. Yuffie's voice filled Sora's stunned silence, teasing Leon as she followed behind him, but he stayed silent to her verbal jabs.

All Sora could do was watch the two walk away. Leon almost sounded proud to Sora.

_Even though he lost?_ Sora wondered.

He had a hard time believing it, but he also hoped that he wasn't somehow imagining it. He was tired of constantly comparing himself to someone else.

Sure, he could cast fire and summon thunder from the sky, but he still felt like the same boy from the islands, lost amongst the Worlds with none to call his own anymore. For the first time in a long time, Sora noticed how far he'd come.

* * *

Sora would eventually fight Leon again in the Hades Cup. This time however, Leon teamed up with Cloud. Despite that, Sora had also gotten stronger and the result was once again the same as last time, with Sora, Donald, and Goofy winning once again.

"Here," Leon said once the match was over. He pulled the lionheaded keychain from his Gunblade's pommel and held it towards Sora.

"Huh?" Sora just stared at the silver keychain Leon held out in front of him. "What's this?" He asked.

"It's a keychain. Your Keyblade uses them, right? I've seen you around Traverse Town with all sorts of different kinds." Leon explained as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

"Sorry, I just wasn't expecting a gift," Sora said, shortly before taking the keychain from Leon's hands. "You sure it's okay for me to have this?"

Leon gave a rare smile. He placed his free hand over his mouth in an attempt to hide the look from his face. "Like I said back at Hollow Bastion, we might never see each other again, but we'll never forget each other either. I want you to have something to remember me by. And besides, it's not like it's one-of-a-kind or anything, at least not anymore. Not on my World."

Sora examined the small silver keychain in his hand. Its features were faded from years of being exposed to the elements of whatever Worlds Leon had been to since he'd fled Hallow Bastion. But despite its age, there wasn't a speck of dirt or dust on it. In fact, it looked recently polished.

"Are you _really_ sure I can have it?" Sora asked again. He didn't want to take away such a long-held treasure from Leon and have him regretting it later.

"Really," Leon said resolutely. "I wouldn't have my World back if it wasn't for you."

Leon could see Sora was still unsure. He placed his hand on Sora's shoulder and spoke again. "Listen Sora, this keychain depicts a Griever. On my World it represents courage. You've proven that you've got enough courage as is, but I'd like you to have it anyway."

* * *

When this keychain was equipped, a lion's head appeared at the end of the Keyblade where the vague resemblance of the teeth of a key would normally be. The whole thing was made of a rough metal. Compared to most of the Keyblade's other forms, this one looked drab by comparison. But Sora loved it regardless.

Sometimes, during their return trips to old worlds, Sora would equip the Lionheart keychain and pretend that he was Leon. He'd mimic his short and snappy sentences, would try to act nonchalant while fighting the Heartless, and would press his palm into his forehead whenever he stopped to think.

Donald and Goofy often noticed, but wouldn't say anything. They let Sora have his fun and be the kid he still was.

Pretending to be Leon gave Sora the chance to reflect on their time together. The encouragement he felt when Leon told him if anyone could save Riku, he could. The excitement and surprise he felt when he unexpectedly heard Leon's voice call out to him after defeating that Behemoth of a Heartless in Hollow Bastion.

But there was one other thing Leon said that kept repeating in his mind. _"We may never meet again, but we'll never forget each other."_

Forgetting everything he'd experienced with Donald and Goofy scared him. And forgetting all the people he'd met scared him even more. Sora didn't just want to play pretend because Leon was cool or something like that, though he would admit that it was fun to pretend he really was as calm and collected as Leon.

But what Sora actually wanted was to solidify his memories of Leon more. He wanted to truly understand Leon's mannerisms before it was too late and he might never see him again.

Sora told himself that if he kept doing this, he would never forget Leon, even if he never saw him again. So, Sora kept pretending.

* * *

Author's Notes: I had a lot of fun coming up with something for these three keychains. The Crab Claw was pretty short, but I think it's good to have a mix of long and short stories for each keychain. The last chapter each of the keychains got pretty long, so I think Crab Claw was a good way to start this section off.

For the Oblivion, I wanted to look at Sora and Riku's relationship from a sadder point of view. Almost like a friendship slowly falling apart. Especially since Riku was choosing the Darkness and Kairi over Sora for most of the game. Fortunately we know that they'll patch things up by the end of KH2.

If you look at some of the other works I've written, you might notice I like Leon/Squall. So I had a pretty good time thinking about a story for the Lionheart. I've always found him to be an interesting character in the Kingdom Hearts series. He gets the letter of Rec from King Mickey at the start of KH1, made sure Geppetto and Pinocchio weren't homeless when they got to Traverse Town, he's the leader of the Radiant Garden Restoration Committee, potentially was the leader during his stay in Traverse Town, and he can still hold his own against all the heartless even without a Keyblade. I like him, and I wish he and the other FF characters got some more development in the KH games. (Also the Gunblade is awesome. I love a dumb sword design and his is great.)  
One problem I had while writing this was that I forgot you don't actually get the Lionheart during the Hercules Cup. So I had to go back and rewrite this section and a bit of Olympia to reflect that. But in the end I like how it ended up, and I hope you did too.


	4. Three Wishes, Pumpkin Head, Divine Rose

**The Three Wishes**

Sora found that Agrabah had been a World that wouldn't stop giving. He'd made a new friend through Aladdin, a new traveling companion with Genie, and a new keychain to use on his Keyblade too.

The keychain was unique to this world too. Sora doubted he'd ever find another one like it on any other World. The keychain was the same lamp that had once imprisoned the Genie. Shortly after joining trio onboard the Gummi Ship, Genie magically summoned a rolling pin from nowhere to squashed and flattened it down to keychain size.

_New friends bearing gifts…_

Sora didn't feel like he deserved it. Agrabah had marked his second outright failure since joining up with Donald and Goofy. The first was losing Alice back in Wonderland.

At least he managed to seal the Keyhole, he tried to tell himself. But he'd already accomplished that before Jasmine was taken. He kept telling himself that he could have done more. Should have done more. Whatever it took to make sure she was safe.

At least with Alice, she'd been taken away from the Queen of Hearts. Wonderland wasn't even her actual home. So, Sora could pretend that she was somehow taken somewhere better than there.

Her disappearance was unsettling, and Sora would often wonder what happened to her. But the possibility that she might've found some way to escape when no one was looking or had been taken somewhere better was still there.

No such luck with Jasmine's disappearance. Sora had to look at his two new friends, both devastated by the sudden loss, and the new token to remember the World by.

Sora could only promise Aladdin that he'd find Jasmine and that she'd be back before he knew it.

* * *

It had been a long time since Sora had last visited Agrabah. And in that time, he'd accomplished the first part of his promise to Aladdin. He'd found Jasmine, but he couldn't bring her back yet.

It frustrated him. She wanted to go back, she wanted to be _home_. But she and all the other Princesses of Heart had to stay behind to hold back the Darkness from escaping Hallow Bastion.

And despite their best efforts, two powerful Heartlesses did escaped from Hallow Bastion. The Phantom and Kurt Zisa.

Fortunately, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were able to track down the two Heartless to Agrabah and the Big Ben clock near Neverland.

Sora dreaded returning to Agrabah without Jasmine. But there was no way to avoid it. Someone could get hurt if Sora didn't defeat Kurt Zisa soon.

Still, Sora hated the thought of disappointing Aladdin again, and the look that would no doubt be on his face when he showed up without Jasmine made every step through the hot sands that much harder.

To Sora's surprise, Aladdin didn't look disappointed to see him without Jasmine. Even before Sora told him Jasmine was safe, Aladdin was genuinely glad to see Sora again. Aladdin was even excited to listen to Sora recount all the adventures he'd had since they'd last seen each other.

"By the way, your Keyblade's looking different from last time." Aladdin pointed to the brass colored weapon in Sora's hand after the boy acted out an exaggerated recreation of a long-ago fight.

"Oh yeah, I guess I never told you," Sora realized. "The Keyblade can change its shape depending on what kind of keychain I've hooked up to it." Sora raised the Keyblade higher to show off the keychain attached to it. It dangled between the two of them. "Do you recognize it? It's the lamp Genie used to be trapped in."

"No way!" Aladdin said as he examined the shrunken lamp. "That's amazing!"

If only to escape the sun, the two of them continued their conversation as they made their way towards Aladdin's house. But even in the new location the two seemed ready to talk all day.

Goofy looked around as the two talked. He taking in the sights, not that there was much to look at inside Aladdin's house besides the large open window perfectly showing the Sultan's Palace. Occasionally Donald would jump in to correct Sora on some story he'd misrepresented.

Goofy was the only one who noticed Carpet hopping around in the corner of the room. It was awfully hard to tell what it was thinking since it didn't have a face, but Goofy worried that something might be wrong. "Hey, umm, does anybody else think that Carpet is lookin' a little antsy?" Goofy asked, not realizing that he'd just permanently ended the conversation.

* * *

Sora fell onto the hot sand. He was exhausted after the long battle with Kurt Zisa and didn't have the energy to care that he was probably getting sand everywhere. He never imagined Kurt Zisa would be as difficult as he turned out to be. "Who would have thought Carpet knew where Kurt Zisa was?" Sora asked in a weary voice.

"I was just hopin' it was excited to see us or something." Goofy answered, handing a potion to Aladdin as he did so.

Aladdin groaned a thank you to Goofy as he stretched his back. "I don't remember any of the Heartless being as strong as that guy the last time you guys were here. Is this what you guys normally have to face?"

Rather than force himself to sit up, Sora rubbed the back of his head against the sand. "No, that guy was way tougher than most things we've faced."

"Okay, good," Aladdin said with some relief. "I was getting really worried for you guys. Hopefully that Phantom Heartless thing you were talking about goes down easier than him."

Somehow Sora doubted it. But it was a nice to pretend that it might, at least for right now. Sora raised the Keyblade above his head and looked at the tiny lamp that he used as a keychain.

He rubbed the lamp between his fingers. Sora held his breath for a few moments, before letting out a dejected sigh. He knew nothing would happen. But he still felt compelled to try. And foolishly, he almost dared to hope.

During moments like these, Sora wished he could have a set of wishes for himself. It would make things _so much easier_.

"Hey Aladdin?" Sora asked, finally sitting up so that he could look at his friend. "Do you ever regret not using your last wish to bring Jasmine back?"

Aladdin considered the question. He quietly hummed to himself as he thought about his answer. "Well, I'll admit I could've used my first two wishes better. I've thought about those a lot. But if you're asking if I regret choosing to free Genie, then the answer is no."

"Really?" Sora was surprised. More that Aladdin wasn't offended by the question, Sora himself only realized the rudeness it held the minute it left his lips. But Aladdin seemed open to answering the question, so Sora elaborated. "But you could've wished for anything, don't you wish you could've saved them?"

"Maybe, but then I might not have ever used them," Aladdin replied. "Ultimately, I used all of them, but I try not to worry about it." Aladdin thought back to all the times something would come up in his life and he'd wish that he still had just _one_ more wish left. "We're always going to have trouble in our lives, and if I'm always wishing I had _one more_ wish left… Well, I'd be a very bitter person."

"I hadn't thought of that."

"Don't get me wrong, I'd love to have another wish or two-"

"Or three!" Sora interrupted.

"Yeah, or three," Aladdin laughed. "But, the point is they were always going to, either, run out or I never be used. So, I might as well use 'em on something."

"I guess that makes sense." Sora looked at the Keyblade's Arabian form. "Wishes would be nice right now. But I guess you're right, there's always going to be one more problem…"

_Still,_ Sora thought, _it would be really nice to have just one wish right about now._

* * *

**The Pumpkin Head**

The Keyblade's newest form, a black blade adorned with a large Halloween bat at the end. It was an apt reflection of the World its keychain came from.

Sora loved it. Just holding it made Sora feel like an ambassador for Halloween Town, bringing a little bit of the friendly frights over to other Worlds. He thought it perfectly encapsulated the kind of kitschy creeps the world reveled in.

Kitsch?

Sora wasn't sure where that word had come from. It sounded like something Kairi would say. But when Goofy asked him how he'd describe the World to others once their journey was done, that was the first word that came to him.

Sora supposed the word "spooky" could describe Halloween Town, but the word seemed to demand quotation marks when associated with the World. Otherwise it just felt misspelled.

Ultimately, Sora really liked Halloween Town. He was nervous at first, but as he spent more time in the World, the more comfortable he became. It reminded him more of Halloween parties back home rather than anything actually horrifying.

Even the Heartless were less frightening in Halloween Town. The people of this World weren't afraid of them. In fact, they wanted to make them dance!

As if the Heartless were just the warmup act to some sideshow performance.

Sora figured it was fitting that beings who celebrated the macabre and delighted at the morbid would somehow leave the Heartless passive. The residents of this World seemed to have somehow struck a balance between the Light and the Dark. Ghoulish frights seemed to jump out at every corner, but each one was done with an air of whimsy.

The blood red sky was contrasted by comically oversized pumpkins. Hundreds of graves that littered the area outside the main town lost their punch when Jack Skellington spoke with such friendly and outgoing attitudes. And his pet dog, who despite being a ghost, was one of the friendliest dogs Sora had ever met.

Then there was the scientist who would scratch his own brain, and, well…

Okay, Sora couldn't really think of a way to rationalize that as fun. In fact, the first time Dr. Finkelstein did it, Sora nearly lost his lunch.

But aside from that, the only part that left Sora with a feeling of dread, was when he finally took on Oogie Boogie. He never liked bugs to begin with, and a living bag filled with them was almost more than he could take. Still, even that was offset by Oogie Boogie's fun personality. Sora figured he would've really liked him if he hadn't been trying to kill them all.

It was a shame, Sora sometimes thought, the way Darkness spread throughout one's Heart. Someone, as jovial as Oogie Boogie didn't seem like the type to side with the Darkness. Sora couldn't really judge anybody from Halloween Town by their looks or surface level personality.

But if Oogie Boogie had been the first person he met, Sora worried he might have been swept up in his fun and eccentric personality. Even during their battle to the death, Oogie Boogie sounded like he was having the time of his life.

_Well, right up until he lost,_ Sora reminded himself.

The experience of visiting Halloween Town stayed with Sora. How many people had he judge at the surface level? Leon seemed dark and withdrawn, but Sora could tell, deeper inside him there was a Heart blinding with Light. Cloud was working with Hades originally, but clearly there were some extenuating circumstances surrounding that.

Cloud wasn't evil. He was just lost. Lost and looking desperately for his _light_.

Maybe just as lost as Sora felt sometimes.

* * *

The moment Sora felt the most lost was when Donald and Goofy had to make the choice between him and following the Keyblade. Sora was, of course, abandoned. He didn't really blame them. They were doing what their King had told them to do. But the feelings of betrayal still welled up inside him and he couldn't command them to go away.

He was all alone, minus some injured Beast Riku had beaten. Perhaps, if Sora had met the Beast at an earlier point in time, he would have kept his distance. But Sora was done looking at surface level details. Instead he ran to it, rather than from it.

This _thing_ lying in front of him was more than just a hurt animal that might lash out at him. He'd crossed the void all for one person he cared for. Even with the power of the Keyblade, Sora still needed a Gummi Ship to travel across Worlds. Despite how much Sora cared for Kairi, he wouldn't have made it off Traverse Town without Donald and Goofy.

This Beast was different. Sora could see deeper than this its surface. It was in pain, and not just physically either. Sora could sympathize with it. Afterall, now that he was alone, without Donald, Goofy, or even the Keyblade to support him, Sora was hurting too.

* * *

**The Divine Rose**

"This is for you. Use it to face the darkness, as the Beast has."

With those words Belle gave Sora a single rose.

Maybe it was a little judgmental of Sora, but he never expected Beast to have someone who cared so much for him. Certainly not someone as beautiful as Belle. In fact, Sora felt a little jealous as he watched Beast and Belle wordlessly hold each other, just happy to have the other once again.

_Face the darkness._

Sora couldn't shake those words from his head. He'd been facing the Darkness for about as long as this journey had gone on for. But he doubted he could have faced half as much as the Beast had without the help of his friends.

Sora wondered what would have happened if he hadn't accidentally arrived at Traverse Town. Would he have turned into a Summon Gem? Could he have done what Beast did? Find a way to travel the worlds without Donald or Goofy or even a ship?

Maybe Belle acted as a guiding light through the darkness? If Sora ever found himself in a position where he couldn't reach the Gummi Ship, would his feelings for Kairi be able to pull him across Worlds like Beast's had?

Sora didn't have an answer for that, in fact Sora's quick words with Belle had somehow filled him with more questions. None of which he felt like sharing to anyone.

Sora held onto the rose as he left the library with Donald and Goofy. One more question was forming in his mind. One that he _did_ feel comfortable sharing. "What should I do with the rose?"

His two friends turned around at the question. "Well what do you want to do with it?" Goofy asked.

"I don't know, I wasn't expecting to have to care for a plant."

"You should give the rose to Kairi," Donald snickered.

Sora rolled his eyes. "Would you be serious?" he said, trying to brush off the idea.

"Well, it's not a bad suggestion!" Donald fired back. "Daisy loves it when I bring her roses. And plus, you wouldn't have to take care of the rose anymore."

Goofy scratched his head. "Gwarsh, I always figured Daisy preferred a different kind of flower, maybe irises… Or dahlias? Somethin' beginning with a 'D'."

Sora was grateful for Goofy's interruption, though he mostly ignored it. He had no idea how to respond to Donald's suggestion. Somehow, the thought of giving Kairi a rose was much harder to imagine than his original idea of stabbing himself in the chest to release her heart. And yet, Sora didn't want to just say no to the idea. He had to think of something meaningful to do with it.

In fact, all this talk about Kairi made Sora much more aware of her lucky charm poking at him through his pocket. Slowly, he reached for it as he tried to come up with an answer to Donald's suggestion. pulling it out, he held it in one hand, opposite to the other holding the rose.

Sora had hoped that only Kairi's Heart would be released from him when he thrust that dark Keyblade into his chest. But if he lost his own Heart in the process, at least in that moment, that would have been acceptable to him.

As a Heartless, Sora wasn't very aware of what he was doing. He was mostly working off instinct. The only thing Sora could really remember after stabbing himself with the Keyblade of People's Hearts was waking up again as a person, his arms wrapped around Kairi. All he could think to do was thank her.

Sora pictured Beast and Belle embracing each other after being apart for so long. Now that he thought about it, he and Kairi had done the exact same thing when they'd reunited. When Sora faced the Darkness he'd been swallowed up by it. But Kairi brought him back.

"Beast really loves Belle, didn't he?" Sora said absentmindedly.

Goofy hyucked good naturedly, "Yeah, he sure does. In fact, they kinda remind me of Donald and Daisy!"

"What!" Donald yelped, turning around to look at Goofy suspiciously. "In what way!?"

"Gwarsh, just in the way Beast is so devoted to her."

"Okay good."

"But he gets angry just as quickly as you do too!"

"Whaddya mean gets angry quickly?! I'll have you know, I'm the patient one of this group!"

Goofy turned back to Sora, ignoring Donald as he fumed in the background. "Gwarsh Sora, your face is getting' red. Are you thinking about giving Kairi the rose?"

"I- uh, well…" Sora stuttered. Why was this such a hard decision? Was he embarrassed to admit he could like someone like that? Maybe it was fear that she didn't see him the same way that held him back. Sora wondered if it would be unfair to tell her about these feelings while everything was still so weird.

"I can't really think of anything else you could do with the rose," Goofy said. "Well, I suppose you could turn it into a Keychain if you wanted to," he added offhandedly.

Sora's ears perked up at that. "That's not a bad idea, Goofy." Sora put Kairi's charm away as he studied the flower. Yes, he could see it now. He could pierce a metal part through one of the petals and run a chain of that to connect it with the Keyblade.

"Oh no!" Donald shouted. "C'mon don't be a scaredy cat! It's just one flower, it barely means anything!"

Sora grinned at him. "What? You don't want to see what form the Keyblade'll take when hooked up to this?" Sora had found his way out and he was taking it. He could think about these feelings later. He emptied his pockets of the materials needed to make a keychain.

"It'll probably just look like a giant flower or something! Goofy help me out here!" Donald looked over to his friend for support.

"Gwarsh, now that Sora brings it up, I'm kinda curious what the Keyblade'll look like too."

Donald threw his hands in the air. "Fine! I give up! Why don't you just hook up everything that isn't attached to the floor while you're both at it."

Sora gave a mischievous grin. "Don't tempt me," he said as he lifted the finished product and began hooking it to his Keyblade.

As Sora walked the halls of Hallow Bastion, he promised himself that one day he'd tell her how he felt. Just as soon as all this craziness is dealt with.


	5. Metal Chocobo

**The Metal Chocobo**

"Ugh!" Sora groaned as he dragged the tip of the Keyblade's new form on the ground. A charm of a little yellow creature, that Cloud had called a Chocobo, dangled near Sora's hand. "This thing weigh's a ton! How the heck does Cloud fight with a weapon like this!?"

"I guess he must work out a lot!" Goofy offered. "Maybe if you keep using it, you'll get stronger too!"

"You think so?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, no doubt about it!"

Sora hefted the solid metal form his Keyblade took up to his eyelevel. His arm shook with strain, but he did his hardest to keep himself from dropping it. "Okay, let's train with it for awhile. How bad could it be?"

* * *

Sora, Donald, and Goofy decided to stay and train at Olympus Coliseum. The Metal Chocobo, as they had decided to call it, was a fitting name. The blade felt like it was made of solid metal. A useful aspect to have when striking one's foes, but Sora found the immense weight exhausting to lug around.

Raising the Keyblade over his head to cast magic was far harder with it than any other Keyblade form. And swinging it around for regular melee combat was even worse. By the end of each day, Sora's arms felt like they were about to tear off from his shoulders.

At the end of his week of training, Sora managed to complete the Phil Cup under a time limit. Sora was shocked to see how much faster his movements had become in just a week. Sora found the Keyblade's other forms felt weightless to him now.

However, despite all the strength the Metal Chocobo contained, Sora rarely used it outside of Olympus Coliseum. Its weight was too heavy to risk slowing himself down or tiring himself out from it in actual combat. So, he designated it as his official _training _Keyblade.

But Sora was okay with it only getting minimal uses. The little yellow bird thing was one of the more unique keychains he'd received from someone. And it was always nice to see it hanging on the wall of his room in the Gummi Ship, waiting for him to return.

A fitting reminder of Cloud, and all the strength Sora had gained from having met him.

* * *

Author's Notes: What?! Four keychains instead of three? What is this insanity?! Okay, it was really three keychains and then a seperate fourth keychain in another chapter. Still though, don't get too used to it. You'll be back to your regular schedule of three keychains per update soon. The only reason Metal Chocobo got a separate chapter was because the title of the last chapter wouldn't fit anymore characters after the "Divine Rose" and it didn't feel right leaving it out of the chapter titles with the others. The main goal with each update is to keep the word count fairly consistent so one doesn't feel especially longer than the others. That being said, the rest of the chapters are going to all be a good bit longer than the first three updates.


	6. OneWingedAngel,DiamondDust,UltimaWeapon

**The One-Winged Angel**

Sora didn't like this Keyblade.

He wanted to. He'd fought so hard to earn it. It was another Keychain he considered a trophy. But he didn't get the slightest feeling of satisfaction when wielded it. He felt the weapon sap his energy every time he held it in his palm. After every battle with it he swayed and felt dizzy on his feet

Donald noticed faster than Goofy that Sora was having trouble keeping up with them. It was especially noticeable when he used magic. The problems that arose while using this keychain never seemed to pop up when he was using the Keyblade's other forms.

"Sora, go change Keychains!" Donald yelled at him after a particularly dangerous fight at the Ends of the Worlds.

"No way. I had to fight that Sephiroth guy to get it!" Sora yelled back. He was honestly the most frustrated with it. Sephiroth nearly killed him in their fight and if didn't learn to use it properly then he would have nothing to show for it.

Goofy handed Sora an ether. An item Sora hungrily devoured. Because, despite how much Sora wanted to deny it, the One-Winged Angel was wearing him down faster than he expected.

Sora tried to focus on the things he liked about this keychain. Such as how the blade ignited the air with flames as he swung it. And, although it wasn't an especially powerful version of the Keyblade, occasionally the blade would reverberate nicely off a satisfying blow against the Heartless.

Those two aspects were the only upsides to this keychain. But still, Sora kept fighting with it, determined to master it and become a stronger warrior to show for it.

And then it happened.

Sora passed out in the middle of battle. He didn't even notice at first. He was knocked over by a Heartless and when he thought he blinked, everyone's position on the field changed. Sora blinked a second time, and once again everybody seemed to teleport from where they once were or what they were doing.

Goofy now stood over him, his shield between Sora and the blade of a Heartless Jiminy had dubbed an Invisible. Donald wasn't too far away, blasting away with all sorts of different magics.

By the third blink, the Heartless were gone and Donald and Goofy both hovered over him with worried looks on their faces.

"Sora, are you okay?" Donald asked in a tone so concerned, that Sora immediately felt guilty for making him worry so much.

Still delirious, Sora babbled half attempted tries to assure them that he was okay. Determined to prove it, even if he couldn't say it, Sora summoned his Keyblade to his hand. A burst of flame surrounded the space in front of it as it burst into existence. The minute Sora grasped it, his arm shook from the strain.

Just holding it was challenge now. Immediately dropping the magical weapon on the ground, the rest of Sora's body began to shake. Partially from exhaustion, but most of it was frustration.

"It's not supposed to be like this." Soar said, feeling even more frustrated at just how childish the statement sounded. His voice quivered. "I should be stronger than this!"

Donald drooped his head. "I know Sora, you don't have to prove yourself to us. Just use a different keychain and see if you feel better, okay?"

"Yeah, you haven't been able to keep up ever since we got here." Goofy agreed. "We know you can do better, the only thing that's changed is the keychain you're usin'."

Sora wanted to argue but he didn't have the strength to even keep a grip on the Keyblade. It vanished from existence a short time later. He studied the ground where the Keyblade had once laid. Just a small burnt outline remained of where it used to lie.

Goofy handed Sora a potion. "Here, drink this." Sora did, but only got halfway through it before the world changed again.

* * *

Sora awoke inside a one-use tent Donald had bought from Huey Dewy and Louie back at Traverse Town. Any trace of Donald and Goofy being in the tent was missing.

Sora was about to call out for the two of them when he heard Donald arguing about something from outside the tent.

"One use! It's wasteful is what it is!" Donald yelled, his voice full of hot-tempered feeling. "I don't know how you can be incompetent enough to make a tent that's good for only one use! It's clearly an example of planned obsolescence!"

"Gwarsh, maybe you should have a talk with yer nephews about it. Or we could try buyin' one of them fancy one-use cottages instead."

"A one-use cottage!? How is a cottage good for only _one_ use?! How would we even carry a cottage with us the first place?!"

"Umm," Sora hesitated. His voice instantly caught the attention of Donald and Goofy.

"Sora, you're awake!" Goofy hollered as he wrapped him in a hug. Donald placed a feathered hand against Sora and allowed himself to let out a sigh of relief.

"Yeah, I'm awake." Sora squeaked from Goofy's crushing embrace. "Sorry if I worried you guys."

"Aw, I wasn't scared," Donald folded his arms and tried to look disinterested.

"Oh yeah? I think you were," Goofy hyucked.

"Who asked you!" Donald fired back before turning back to Sora. "Sora? Are you still going to use that keychain?"

"No," Sora said, summoning his Keyblade to his hand and tearing the winged charm from it. Instantly it reverted to its original form with the Kingdom Key keychain hanging where the One-Winged Angel once hung. "I'm done trying to use it. It doesn't want to be used. There's a darkness inside this keychain."

"Whaddya mean?" Goofy asked.

"It's kinda hard to put into words," Sora responded. "Just holding this keychain feels…" Sora trailed off, trying to find the right word. He didn't want to worry his friends more than he already had, but they would probably worry even more if he said nothing. "Bad, or maybe wrong? It's harmful at least."

Goofy gulped in response. "Whaddya think we should do?"

Sora stared into the vast landscape of former Worlds before looking down at winged keychain still in his hand. An idea sprouted in his mind. His grip tightened on the small winged keychain as he knew what to do.

"Sora?" Donald reached out for his friend, trying to offer some reassurance to the boy who'd grown so quiet.

Jerking his body before Donald could touch him, Sora threw the keychain into the distance. He turned around to face Donald and Goofy.

They both gave him questioning looks. He loved gathering his collection of keychains, they couldn't believe he'd just toss one away like that.

Seeing the question on their faces, Sora spoke before they could ask. "The One-Winged Angel, it's not something for me to conquer, I see that now." Sora spoke in a tone free of the doubts and insecurities his voice held earlier. "Like I told you, Goofy. It's harmful, so I'm not going to bother letting it hurt me anymore."

Goofy smiled and placed a hand on Sora's shoulder. "If that's what you think is best!"

Donald moved to do the same, but he wasn't tall enough to reach, so instead gripped Sora's hand and gave it a squeeze. "Yeah, good riddance to bad rubbish!"

Sora began to laugh. About what, he wasn't sure. "Hey, don't you two start getting mushy on me!"

"Aww, the three of us have always been mushy!" Goofy chuckled as he leaned against Sora and brandished his shield. "But that's okay. So long as I've got my shield, I won't let nothin' touch us three mushies!"

Sora laughed as he playfully shoved him off his shoulder. "You guys keep talking like that and I'm liable to throw up!"

Donald and Goofy kept teasing as Sora looked back from where they'd come. He couldn't help but be taken aback by how far they'd come together. Not just in this World either. Every World they'd walked through, every challenge they faced, it all seemed to form up in a straight line behind them.

They'd been through a lot of tough battles, but Sora knew their toughest ones were just ahead. Sora looked towards the road they still had to travel and steeled himself for whatever he'd have to face next. The future didn't scare him at all. Afterall, Goofy still had his shield to protect the three mushies.

* * *

**The Diamond Dust**

Sora made his way back to the Gummi ship after a particularly grueling battle against a colossal being called the Ice Titan. As the name suggested, it was made of living ice and commanded said element in all manners of ice based attacks.

Despite mostly throwing solid ice at him, the Ice Titan occasionally breathed out a frosty breath that coated the ground beneath it with snow and froze what lay under as ice. Sora was amazed by it, his thoughts raced back to when he was first learning the Blizzard spell and could only produce small amounts of slush. It was the most snow Sora had ever seen. In fact, even now Sora still felt a chill cling to him as he walked along with Donald and Goofy.

"Say, Sora. You've got a little somethin' stuck to ya there." Goofy said, noticing a perfectly preserved snowflake on Sora's hoodie. Goofy made special care not to accidentally crush it in his grip as he plucked it from Sora's shoulder,

"Huh?" Sora turned to see what Goofy was pinching between his fingers. "What is it?"

"Looks like a snowflake." Goofy said, in the comically serious way only he seemed to be able to do. He studied the small frozen water crystal as if it were a rare synthesis ingredient.

Donald looked up at the object in Goofy's hand before turning to address Sora. "Must be a leftover from your exhibition against the Ice Titan."

"Really…" Sora grinned, pulling his arms over his head and thought back to the battle he'd won singlehandedly. He tried to recall when the snowflake might've gotten attached to him, but he was dodging so much snow and ice being hurled at him it was impossible to figure out when it had stuck to him. "I'm surprised it hasn't melted yet."

"Gwarsh, good point." Goofy said, finally looking away from the ice crystal. "Wonder how much longer it'll last."

"Well, let's take it with us and find out." Donald said as he moved on ahead from the rest of the group. "C'mon, you guys! We gotta get back to Traverse Town! Sora, you told Kairi you'd visit her as soon as you were done here, remember?" he called back at the two stragglers.

"Oh, right!" Sora shouted in return as he ran to catch up with Donald.

"Hey fellers, wait for me!" Goofy hollered after them.

* * *

Sora scurried down the streets of Traverse Town alone. He held the snowflake in his hand, careful not to drop it. Curiously, it hadn't melted during the trip back to Traverse Town.

Sora bounded through the alley that eventually lead into the waterway. Sora figured Kairi would be intrigued by the miraculous snowflake that wouldn't melt, and secretly he was excited to be the one to show her it.

"Kairi!" Sora shouted, once she was in sight.

Kairi jumped at Sora's sudden and unexpectedly loud volume. For a moment, she worried something might be wrong.

But Sora ran right up to her and outstretched his hand holding the snowflake. "You'll never guess what I found! He chuckled proudly.

Kairi looked at the tiny object, and then back at Sora. _That was it?_ Kairi thought. She half expected Sora to be running in to tell her about some sort of emergency from how loudly he'd shouted to her, and here he was with a snowflake of all things!

"Sora, why do you have a snowflake?" she asked. Sora's grin widened and she suddenly understood exactly why Sora had been so noisy. _He get's excited so easily._ She thought.

"It's not just any snowflake, Kairi. It's a snowflake that refuses to melt."

"It… Refuses?" Kairi repeated. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I've had it for a couple hours now and it still hasn't melted." Sora extended his arm again, offering Kairi the chance to hold the small ice crystal.

Cautiously, Kairi took it from Sora, half worried that she might accidentally crush it if she wasn't careful. She held the snowflake between her fingers and slowly turned it over in her hand as she examined it. "Why won't it melt?"

"I don't know." Sora shrugged. "Donald said it might be magical or something… I mean it did come from a giant ice monster, that might be why it won't melt."

"An Ice _Monster?_"

"Well, I think its actual called an Ice Titan, but it wasn't really much for conversation. So we didn't get the chance to exchange names." Sora admitted.

Kairi giggled at the thought of Sora sitting down to talk with a giant ice monster. _If anyone could, Sora could_, she figured.

After spending some more time examining it, Kairi at last spoke up again. "You know, this snowflake kind of reminds me of home…"

Sora's smile changed into an expression of curiosity. "Really?" he hadn't expected her to talk about that. She'd never talked about where she'd come from for as long as he'd known her. "How come? I thought you couldn't remember anything from your home?"

"It used to snow on my World." Kairi said, as she stared deeply into the snowflake's patterns. "It's weird, I still can't remember much, but I can remember trying to catch the falling snowflakes in my hand to look at them when I was little. But they usually melted before I got a good look." She looked back at Sora and gave him a grin that matched the one he had when he first arrived. "It's nice to finally have a good long look at one"

Sora's smile returned, he was glad that he had this chance to make her smile. But there was a pang of jealousy inside him that caused his smile to only stay temporarily. "You know, despite all the Worlds I've traveled to while looking for you and Riku, none of them had snow…"

Kairi thought back to all the events she could remember while being a passenger in Sora's Heart. "Well, that might be a good thing." She teased. "You're kind of used to the beach. The snow might look kind of similar to sand, but it's _much_ colder."

"Hey c'mon, I know that much!" Sora laughed. "I fought the ice thing!"

Kairi laughed in return. "I thought you said it was called an Ice _Titan_!"

"Whatever it was, it was made of ice!" Their laughter echoed through the cave. After a while silence slowly settled in again. "Anyway, once this is all over, we'll be going back home. Back to the Islands."

"Yeah," Kairi said.

"I'm kinda disappointed that I won't get to see any actual snow for myself. It's not like it ever snows on the Islands."

"Oh," Kairi didn't expect Sora to sound so down about it. "I'm sorry, Sora."

"No, it's fine. It's not your fault I never got to see it." Sora suddenly had a thought. He paused for a moment in nervous apprehension as he considered sharing it. "Hey Kairi?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you tell me what snow is like? Actual snow, not the small stuff Donald can spray from his staff."

Kairi was a little surprised. She wasn't sure she could do it. It had been nearly nine years, at best, since she'd last seen the snow, but she didn't want to deny Sora his request. "Sure, Sora. Anything you want to know in particular?"

"No," Sora shook his head. "Just tell me what it's like for it to snow where you live."

"Well, sometimes it's really wet and slushy, and other times it's more compact. You could almost walk on it, but I mean, I was only four at the time. So maybe I just didn't weigh enough to fall through it."

"Really?"

"Yeah, it was pretty magical. Sometimes I'd go to bed and there wouldn't be any. Then when I would wake up, the whole place would be covered in the stuff!"

"Wow…" Sora said, trying to imagine what that must have been like.

"We even had a name for it back on my world, when we woke up in the morning and the landscape was covered in snow."

"What did you guys call it?"

"Diamond dust. Because of the way the rising sun gleamed off it."

"Diamond Dust, huh?" Sora brought his hand to his chin and tried to picture that as well. "That sounds really pretty."

"It was." Kairi said wistfully as more thoughts of a home she'd thought long forgotten flooded back to her.

She turned back to Sora. "But try not to feel too disappointed, okay?" She paused to gently place the small snowflake back into Sora's hand. "After all. you've got a little piece of Diamond Dust for yourself."

Sora looked at the snowflake, another small smile slowly grew on his face. "Yeah, I guess so!"

Another thought crossed Sora's mind, if the snowflake really wouldn't ever melt, maybe he could make a keychain out of it. It could serve as a reminder of this moment with Kairi.

"Do you still want to talk about snow?" Kairi asked, her voice cutting through his thoughts.

"Nah, I've got a better idea. Check this out," Sora said, pointing his Keyblade away from Kairi. He could make a keychain out of the snowflake later. Right now, he wanted to see some real snow with Kairi. "Deep Freeze!" He shouted.

* * *

**The Ultima Weapon**

Sora spent a lot of time experimenting with the Moogle synthesis. It was an interesting curiosity to him at first. However, as his journey approached its end, Sora found himself visiting it more frequently.

When pressed about why he was so committed synthesizing, he'd claim that he was doing it to make something cool for everyone. It wasn't _untrue_, he'd made all sorts of things. A staff of Donald, a shield for Goofy, along with an assortment of other objects. From bangles, to ribbons, to earrings, to even a crown, Sora had done it all.

But Donald and Goofy could tell there was more to Sora's sudden interest in synthesizing than he was letting on. He just wouldn't come clean.

One day, while rifling through the Moogles's ancient synthesis recipe book, Sora stumbled upon an entry for Keyblade wielders of old, called the 'Ultima Weapon'. It was the perfect recipe for Sora. It required materials from every World he'd been to, meaning it would take a long time to create. And since its name implied it would be of great use to the dangerous place they were heading towards eventually, Donald and Goofy agreed to postpone their trip to the End of the World

Unlike most keychains Sora had collected, Ultima Weapon was made entirely by him. Looking at the finished Ultima Weapon, Sora could see why it was given that name. Unlike all his other keychains, this one was truly a weapon. An actual sword blade was hidden beneath an elaborate wreath of gold. It vaguely reminded Sora of a sword he'd used once in a bizarre dream.

A dream he had just days before the Islands fell to Darkness. Those days felt so long ago to him now. And now with the Ultima Weapon finished, Sora, Donald, and Goofy were soon to depart to the End of the World and set everything back to normal.

But what even was normal anymore? Sora's new normal was flying to new Worlds and making new friends with Donald and Goofy by his side. If things did go back to normal, the way he remembered normal being at least, then ironically the only thing that wouldn't be normal anymore would be Sora. Was it selfish to wish that things could just stay they way they were now?

Holding the finished keychain in his hand, Sora was tempted to hide it someplace and tell Donald and Goofy the synthesis failed and that they'd have to try to make it again. But even they wouldn't delay traveling to the End of the World a second time.

So, with a bit of apprehension, Sora showed off his entirely self-made keychain to Donald, Goofy, and Kairi, before taking off in the Gummi Ship.

* * *

Sora only used the Ultima Weapon occasionally. On their way to the End of the World, the three stopped at various Worlds. Mostly to visit friends one last time, but it did give them a good chance to test the Keyblade's new form on the various Heartless that appeared.

It felt powerful, and if its name was anything to go by, it _was _powerful. But what Sora liked most about his keychains were the events that lead to him receiving them. Each one contained their own story and reminded him of the friendships he'd made.

When the time came that they arrived at the End of the World, Sora hesitated to take his newest keychain with him. Ultima Weapon had no real story to it. Sora had spent a lot of time making it, which held a certain satisfaction. But Sora had synthesized a lot of items along the way to Ultima Weapon. The thought of choosing the Ultima Weapon keychain over all his other keychains didn't sit right with Sora, especially for what was likely the final new World he'd ever set foot on.

There was a temptation to take all of his keychains with him, to show no favoritism to any of them. But ultimately, Sora decided to only take the Oathkeeper and One-Winged Angel keychains with him.

"No point in traveling with a ton of stuff jangling around in my pockets," Sora said to himself.

There was a thrill to taking the One-Winged Angel over Ultima Weapon. Sora hadn't mastered it yet, but the End of the World could be his trial by fire with it.

"Sora are you coming?!" Donald called for him.

"Yeah, Coming!" Sora called back, giving one last look to his newest keychain. Sora set it down on his desk and gave it a slight smile. "Next time," he whispered to it before running out the door.

Unfortunately for the Ultima Weapon, next time would never arrive. The reforming worlds would claim even the small keychains Sora had Collected. As these too, came from other Worlds.

The Ultima Weapon was ripped apart by the pull of the Worlds Sora had visited, each one claiming back the resources used to create the keychain.

Nearly a full year would pass before Sora returned to the Gummi Ship. By that point the promise of using the Ultima Weapon was a distant thought Sora no longer recalled. Not even the memory of setting it down on his desk remained. Even if he did remember, Sora was far more distraught over the total loss of his entire collection, to care about a promise he had made to a single keychain.

* * *

Author's Notes: Hello, hello! I hope you've all been doing well. Thanks for reaching this far! These three keychain were a challenge to write, but they were also a fun challenge. This section got a bit long so I apologize for that.

The One-Winged angel is a keychain you get for beating Sephiroth, and despite it being the reward to such a hard challenge, its actually a pretty lackluster keyblade. Strength stat's okay, but already outclassed by some of other keyblades you've acquired by this point. The magic stat's actually really bad. There are two keyblades that give you negative magic, the Metal Chocobo (which subtracts 1) and the One-Winged Angel (Which subtracts 2!). With the Metal Chocobo I tried to justify that by it being really heavy and so it tired Sora out rather quickly. For the One-Winged Angel, I had it actively harm Sora. Since Sephiroth is Cloud's darkness in the KH-universe so I thought it fit that a keychain from him would be more of a detriment to Sora when attached to his keyblade than one given to him from a friend.  
The One-Winged Angel was actually the third keychain I wrote for, but one of the last for me to finish. So it was really nice to have it finished and see the finished product.

The Diamond Dust was a keychain I really had fun writing. I wanted Kairi to be somewhat involved in with the keychains Sora gets, but that can be difficult since she's only around for the Oathkeeper (which she gives to him) and a lot of other ones are obtained while she's just a Heart within Sora. But the Diamond Dust is a keychain with zero context to it besides Sora getting it after beating the Ice Titan, so there was plenty of room to take some liberties with. Although the zero context to keychains is kind of a problem I have for with writing for all these optional endgame keychains, but at least I could use Sephiroth as an idea base for the One-Winged Angel. So I kinda turned this keychain into a Sora-Kairi bonding moment. And honestly, the Diamond Dust became one of my favorites to write about, which came as quite a big surprise to me, and I'm really happy to finally be able to share it.

Ultima Weapon: What was I supposed to write about for this? Talk about a keychain with zero context. Sora just makes it at some point while right at the end point of the game. Plus it's so powerful it can make the final boss fight with Ansem a cake walk. So I pretty early on decided that Sora wouldn't use it to fight Ansem with. I also decided to have Sora use the Ultima Weapon as an excuse to hold off on continuing the quest as a way to explain why Sora would stop to build it. It's probably a pretty similar thing that happened to some of us while playing the games, haha!  
I also had to think of what to do with the Ultima Weapon at the end. My original idea was that the Gummi Ship would be bumped around while the Worlds were being put back together, and while that was happening the Ultima Weapon keychain would have fallen into Sora's drawers of retired keychains. It would explain why Sora never uses it during the later games and the rest of the keychains would have been left unused because Sora wanted to leave them on his wall. I was imagining that by the end of the game he would have just a ton of stuff hanging on his wall (might be a problem since they introduce barrel rolling in KH2, that's all going on the floor), but having them all float away back to their original Worlds was a kind of tragic concept as Sora loses all his mementos to friends he'd met. Also poor Ultima Weapon got ripped apart due to its nature of coming from other Worlds. Hopefully that brought some comfort to those of you who had to go through that grind of making it in KH1FM.


	7. The Kingdom Key and The Oathkeeper

**The Kingdom Key**

Sora's eyes bore deep into the room he'd just come from. Just moments ago, he could have sworn he'd heard a voice. It was strangely familiar, but he couldn't place why or where he'd heard it. He wondered if the others had noticed it too. Looking back at them, Sora could see Donald and Goofy were more interested in investigating this new room than finding the source of the mysterious voice.

Somehow not noticing the otherworldly door standing in the middle of the room, Sora was ready to turn back around and investigate the source of the voice some more when Donald called out to him.

"Sora, are you ready to keep going?"

Sora stopped. "Don't you hear something?" he asked.

Donald looked around for a minute, trying to figure out what Sora was talking about. "I don't hear anything," he said at last, turning to look to Sora for more guidance as to what he should be listening for.

Sora didn't respond immediately. Instead, bringing a hand to his chin as he wondered aloud to himself. "That voice was so familiar. Maybe it's just my imagination."

"Maybe you'd better take a rest!" Donald insisted.

* * *

The last battle with the Heartless had turned out to be a marathon of a fight. Multiple waves threw themselves at Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Multiple times during the fight, Sora feared that fight was going to be their last. But somehow, they managed to pull through.

Now Sora sat against the wall of this cave, slowly regaining his energy. Donald followed suite, however Goofy was sprawled out on the floor, already fast asleep.

A lone door stood before them as if made real from a dream. For a moment, Sora thought he recognized it from somewhere, but it must've been his mind playing tricks.

Needing somewhere else to look, Sora summoned his Keyblade. Still in its base form since he'd thrown the One-Winged Angel keychain away. This form, and the keychain that appeared with it, he called the Kingdom Key.

There was no particular reason why he gave it that name. He just thought it was fitting while searching for a King with Donald and Goofy. The name made him feel like he fit in a bit more with Donald and Goofy.

As the days spent traveling with them passed, Sora slowly became more open to sharing how he felt to the two strangers. The long-held secret finally came out to them, Sora opened up that he felt, if they were lined up next to each other, everyone could tell he was the only one from a different World compared to them.

"Gwarsh Sora, but you are from a different World." Goofy had told him. "So, wouldn't it make sense that you might look a little different from us?"

"But sometimes it feels like I don't belong at all, like you guys should have someone that fits better alongside you…"

"Sora," Donald said leaning over from the pilot's chair. "You should know by now, it's not what you look like on the outside. It's what's in your Heart that matters."

* * *

A loud snore from Goofy snapped Sora out of his thoughts. Sora smiled as he looked at him, reclining on the ground and seemingly without a care in the Worlds.

Goofy and Sora had always been close, even when they'd first met. Goofy just had that kind of personality. Even if there wasn't a deep friendship yet, Goofy would be there to joke around with. A big difference compared to Donald, who was much spikier.

Sora didn't get along with Donald at first. It really wasn't until after Deep Jungle that they truly became friends. Still, Donald was always short tempered. And no matter how close they'd become, Sora always had a way of setting him off.

Sora thought back to his Divine Rose keychain. Specifically, the moment when he decided to turn the rose into a keychain. Donald had sure become agitated back then.

"You were right," Sora said, looking over to Donald.

"Huh?" Donald looked over to Sora after the unexpected statement.

"About Belle's rose, I should've just given it to Kairi."

"Oh… Well it's just a single rose, it doesn't matter that much."

Goofy gave a loud yawn as he groggily rubbed his eyes. "What'cha two talking about?"

Sora turned to Goofy. "The rose. I was saying, I probably should've just given it to Kairi."

Goofy gave Sora a sleepy smile. "Aw, it's not that big of a deal."

"You worry too much." Donald said. "Just give her any old flower if it's bothering you so much. She won't care so long as they're from you."

"You think so?"

"Yeah, Donald's right." Goofy said. "I don't think you've got anything to worry about. You two were gone for a while after you got the Diamond Dust snowflake, after all."

"Oh…" Sora looked away, hoping the others wouldn't notice his face turning red. "I mean we just talked."

Donald raised an eyebrow as he gave Sora a sly smile. "And played in the snow, I hear."

"What? How'd you know that?!"

"Kairi told me. She talks to other people than just you, y'know."

Sora stammered for an answer. "I thought the three of us were talking about flowers!" Sora said trying to change the subject.

Goofy sat up suddenly. "Oh! Speaking of flowers, "I just remembered what Daisy's favorite flowers are!"

Change of subject, found. Sora jumped right into the new conversation. "What kind?" he asked.

"Donald's flowers!" Goofy laughed. "I remember her telling me about it! She said her favorite flowers are the flowers Donald brings her."

Even underneath all his white feathers, Donald couldn't hide his look of embarrassment. "Did she really say that?"

Goofy gave a hearty chortle. "Yeah, she did!"

Sora couldn't help but smile at the conversation being had. He nestled back into the comfortable spot he'd found. He still needed to get some more rest. He gave one last look to the Kingdom Key keychain before allowing it to vanish back into nothing.

There was one other keychain that he'd brought with him. Slowly he dug his hand into his pocket and pulled out Kairi's lucky charm, the Oathkeeper.

Sora squeezed Kairi's charm. Just to feel it in his hand. Sometimes it felt like he didn't actually have his body back. Sometimes he felt more like reclaimed darkness turned into light and somewhere out there he might run into what he'd left behind. He tried not to think about that too much. After all, what else could he be? It's not like there could be two versions of himself running around. But still, he couldn't shake the thought.

Kairi's charm always helped protect him from thoughts like these. Plus, Donald and Goofy were here, watching his back. At least right now, he was safe. He could have one final rest before he finished this journey once and for all.

His eyelids grew heavy as he let the reassuring feeling coming from the keychain wash over him.

* * *

**The Oathkeeper **

The one keychain Sora always took with him. Even when he didn't plan to use it, he always kept it in his pocket. He was almost certain Kairi wasn't being totally serious when she commanded him to 'make sure' he brought it back to her. But he took the command _deadly_ seriously. At the end of every battle he fought, and at the start of every break he took, Sora would search his pocket and make sure it hadn't somehow gotten misplaced.

She had been nestled in his Heart for so long, it was no surprise to him that even once she'd been freed from it, he still held a large place in his Heart for her. He might have been surprised to learn just how much Kairi reciprocated those feelings.

Only half conscious throughout Sora's adventure, Kairi could still remember bits and pieces of what had happened now that she was safe in Traverse Town.

She first woke up around the same time Sora regained consciousness in Leon's hotel room. Although, maybe 'woke up' was being generous. She was so delirious that all she could do was repeat the words Yuffie said to Sora before falling back to sleep again. From Sora's point of view, he thought he'd taken one too many blows to the head and imagined Kairi.

Her next 'awakening' was when Sora entered Merlin's house for the first time. It was still empty and abandoned at the time. Kairi was struck by how much it reminded her of the Secret Place back on Destiny Islands. Perhaps Sora noticed it first, and that was what gave her the nudge to wake up more lucidly than last time.

She wanted to talk about it to Sora so badly, and to her surprise he actually seemed to be able to hear to what she had to say.

But just as Sora seemed about to answer her, Goofy ended the conversation. She couldn't blame him too much. From his point of view, Sora must've looked like he was staring into space. But with the connection lost, Kairi found herself falling back to sleep. Sheltered, once again, in Sora's Heart.

She stayed more permanently awake once Sora landed in Deep Jungle.

Deep trouble was more like it. Groggily, she looked through Sora's eyes as he fought off a leopard of all things!

Fortunately, a local of this World arrived just in time to get the leopard off of him. This was the most conscious Kairi had been since Sora's journey began, but she worried that she could do little else other than watch and listen to the World through Sora for the rest of her foreseeable future.

Could she do _anything_ when she was little more than an accidental spiritual passenger on someone else's journey? Eventually she discovered that she could, but she would have preferred it being over less drastic circumstances.

A hunter called Clayton shot at Sora. Instinctively she knew what Clayton had wasn't magic. Maybe it was an innate ability she had as a Princess of Heart. Regardless the tiny, nearly invisible, bullet seemed to move in slow motion before her.

She knew what would happen next. It would collide with Sora's throat and leave him gasping and, ultimately, suffocating for air against his own blood. And she would be forced to watch in horror, powerless to stop it.

_No!_ Kairi's Heart screamed! She told herself to do something, _anything!_ If Sora and that Donald guy could use magic, then surely she should be able to as well, right? She put her all into deflecting the bullet.

As a Princess of Heart, she must've been able to tap into some kind of light magic, because in a flash the bullet had moved a couple inches down and to left. Enough to avoid Sora's neck, but not enough to avoid him altogether. Pain ripped through Kairi, but she held on to as much of it as she could. Trying to spare Sora from as much of it as possible. The little bit of pain that did get through to Sora left him stunned, but Donald was already busy healing him while Tarzan fought back against Clayton and Goofy covered them with his shield.

Kairi wasn't sure if Sora even realized just how close that was. Fortunately, she didn't need to help soak up any more pain for Sora for the rest of the battle. Nor did she need to for many fights afterwards either.

* * *

Throughout the journey, her consciousness waxed and waned. Seemingly, it was completely random when she'd actually be aware of what was happening. But she'd always be there whenever he fought against what felt like insurmountable odds, offering him waves of good feelings. She shared her confidence in him and assured him that he could overcome whatever lay before him.

Kairi's methods were subtle. To the point that Sora didn't even notice that he fought with confidence that wasn't his own.

She gave Sora her support when she thought he needed it. Little whispers of "you can do it" here and there. Sora couldn't consciously hear it, but its effect was noticeable to her. If someone were to ask her, not that they knew they could, she would say that Sora fought faster and harder when she spoke to him.

It was mostly because of moments like these that Kairi got to make her own opinions of the Worlds Sora visited. Usually it took until the Heartless' first appearance on a World before she would wake up in Sora's heart and see what he could see.

Agrabah was nice, if a little bland and covered in sand. But it was the Cave of Wonders that really intrigued her. It was exciting to delve deeper into it and see the treasures held within. She wished she had a body of her own to scoop up a handful of it into her own hands. But only _just_ to feel it, of course.

* * *

Seeing Riku again inside Monstro was nice. But he was being a jerk to Sora and Geppetto. To make matters worse, just being _inside_ Monstro was disgusting. It was probably the one time she was glad she didn't have a body of her own.

* * *

Unlike Sora, Kairi didn't enjoy her time in Atlantica. Maybe she would have enjoyed it better if she could swim around for herself. But really, her real problem wasn't with the World, it was with Ariel. Sora was getting just a little too chummy with her for Kairi's taste.

Kairi felt bad for being so jealous of Ariel. But Ariel could talk, and laugh, and interact with Sora, something Kairi could only wish she could do. It had been so long since she'd had a conversation with someone.

And then Sora kept stealing glances at Ariel, the same way she'd caught him stealing glances at her back on the Islands. Did Sora like Ariel? Did he have a things for Redheads like her and Ariel? Or just for girls who hadn't heard of the concept of a shirt? Despite Kairi's disapproval, it never really changed Sora's opinion of Ariel.

He did always look at the keychain she gave him with indifference, though. The Sora she knew loved shells, from the plainest sand dollars to the grand former homes of Hermit Crabs. Maybe she'd had more of an affect than she thought?

Maybe if someone else would gift him a shell, then she could see if he looked at that differently.

* * *

On the other hand, Kairi liked Halloween Town. It was fully decorated like fun Halloween parties she'd gone to back home on the Islands. The kind her parents would often disapprove of.

"Gwarsh, how d'ya think you would describe this place?" Goofy asked. "Y'know, when this is all over and we tell people about the places we've been to."

_Kitsch_

Kairi's Heart wordlessly asserted. Growing up in the mayor's house on Destiny Islands, Kairi was used to hearing all sorts of opinions on art, both public and private. Her adoptive parents weren't mean per se, just opinionated.

"It's not high art, it's a juvenile attempt dressed up as high art." Her adoptive father once complained after having to attend a grand unveiling of an art instillation. She still thought he was being overly harsh at the time. After all, art is art, there's no point to designating it high and low in her mind.

But the word kind of fitted this place. It wasn't actually scary, it was just dressed in the trappings of what was scary was supposed to look like. Again, like a fun Halloween party. For example, Jack and Sally both had the appearance of the dead, but they were some of the most alive people Sora had met.

It was just a shame no one was able to hear her opinion…

A moment later Sora repeated the word to answer Goofy's question. "Kitsch, I suppose."

If Kairi had a neck and head, she would have done a double take. Had he heard her somehow? Or did her Heart imprint on his in some wordless way? Kairi's mental state still wasn't quite all there. So she didn't have the energy to spend wondering before she returned to being a silent observer.

"Kitsch?" Donald repeated. "Where'd you come up with a word like that?"

"I dunno." Sora smiled as he pulled his arms behind his head. "It just sorta came to me."

Goofy scratched his head in thought. "I guess as far as scary goes… This town is a pretty fun variety of it!"

* * *

It was a something Kairi didn't forget. Much later into the journey, Sora had a moment of self-doubt. Donald and Goofy noticed it pretty quickly.

"Remember what Donald said to ya: no frowning, no sad faces." Goofy tried to tell to him.

"How can you be so cheerful? There's still no sign of your king. Aren't you worried?" Sora shot back. Kairi could tell he wasn't really talking about their king right now. His experiences on Captain Hook's ship still weighed heavily on his mind.

At first, he was just glad that he'd finally found Kairi. He tried to ignore any uncomfortable feelings by wondering if Kairi would believe him he'd been able to fly through the air. Every time the question of why Kairi wouldn't wake up entered his mind he'd force himself to think about that other question. But he could hold back the feelings of worry and fear forever, and now he was being forced to feel them all at once.

Goofy once again spoke up. "The king told us to go out and find the key bearer, and we found you. So as long as we stick together, it'll all work out okay. Ya just gotta believe in yourself, that's all." He tried giving Sora a reassuring smile, but it wasn't working as well as he hoped it would.

"Just… believe?" Sora closed his eyes and tried to tell himself that everything would be okay. That Riku would be his friend again, that Kairi was just really sleepy and that's why she wouldn't wake up. But it wasn't working. He couldn't convince himself that things would turn out okay.

Kairi couldn't stand to see Sora like this. She knew it was a long shot, but she had to say something to him.

"I believe in you." Kairi offered. "My grandmother once told me a story. She said that even in the deepest darkness, there will always be a light to guide me. So, believe in the light, and the darkness will never defeat you, Sora. Your heart will shine through and push it all away!"

She waited with bated breath for some kind of response from Sora.

A moment later Sora opened his eyes. "Huh?!" He looked around trying to find himself.

"What's the matter?" Goofy asked.

"Uh, nothing…" Sora said trying to act casual. It took a little time, but eventually Donald and Goofy were convinced that nothing was wrong and looked away. Out of their sight and scrutiny, Sora whispered to himself, "Kairi, did you call me?"

* * *

Kairi had lost track of the days since she'd been freed from Sora's Heart. Now that she had to stay behind in Traverse Town, she almost regretted not being freed. At least when she was a Heart she was with Sora. But now all she could do was stay behind and hope he would be okay.

She understood, of course. She wasn't a fighter, she didn't even like play fighting with Riku and Sora. They hit too hard, and the only girl on Destiny Islands that would also play fight with them was Selphie. But the tension she felt everytime Sora flew away made her wish she could at least watch over him like she'd done in the past.

The ground shifted beneath Kairi's feet, interrupting Kairi's thoughts. Whatever Sora, Donald, and Goofy had to do at the End of the World, they must've succeeded. She looked up into the night sky and stared at the stars. Somewhere up there, Sora was safe and was finally done fighting. They could go home.

She almost felt sorry to have to say goodbye to Traverse Town. In the time since she'd gotten her body back, she'd found herself growing attached to the little town.

The people populating Traverse Town were now all being transported to their homes. Mounds of earth that had come from their worlds came to them and carried them off to wherever their World was being reshaped.

For Kairi, it was a piece of land from Hollow Bastion that came for her. It was the World she was born on, but it wasn't the World she called home.

"I think it's waiting for you to hop on, kid." Cid told her as he stepped onto his own piece of land. He was the only one from Hollow Bastion who still remained in Traverse Town.

Kairi shook her head. "No, I'm going to wait a little while longer."

Cid shrugged a 'do what you want' shrug before speaking. "In that case, this'll be goodbye. Stay safe, kid. Don't go taking anymore naps in people's Hearts, okay?"

"Try and stop me, Cid." Kairi returned with a smile. He waved her a goodbye as he floated off. Kairi took another look at the piece of Hollow Bastion waiting for her to step on. "C'mon, I already told you to get lost. I'm waiting for _our_ Islands."

The piece of land hovered in front of her for another moment before it started its journey to back to Hollow Bastion without her. As Kairi stood in Traverse Town's First District, she thought back to the Islands she used to play on. She thought of Sora and Riku, she thought of her adoptive parents, she thought of Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. The Islands were just as much a part of her Heart as all of they were.

When she opened her eyes a small gathering of sand pooled in front of her. It wasn't the most stable looking piece of land. She almost wished she'd just gone with the Hollow Bastion piece now. If she could help it, she'd rather not balance on the sand while hoping it held together for the whole journey. Putting those fears to the back of her mind, Kairi lightly placed her foot atop the pile of sand. A moment later, it began floating away with her, just as everyone else had.

* * *

Kairi walked through the old secret place she and Sora had spent years drawing in. So many memories sprang to her as she looked at old drawings. A giant bird here, a castle there.

But there was something new that caught her eye. She found the portraits she and Sora had done of each other, but Sora was holding a Paopu fruit now. Kairi placed a hand on the drawing and suddenly found herself trying to hold back tears. It was weird, to be trying and failing at holding back tears, but at the same time a smile grew on her face as well.

_The Legend of the Paopu Fruit._ _If you share one with someone really special, your destinies will be entwined forever. For all eternity._

Kairi picked up a piece of chalk from the floor of the cave and began drawing her own Paopu. Maybe they couldn't share one in person right now, but their drawings could. She always was better at drawing than Sora. She tied not to giggle at his poor attempt to capture her likeness from so long ago.

Pausing every now and then, she thought back to the Worlds she had seen through his eyes and the keychains the people had given to him. She could still remember the feeling of his Heart beating with joy, right next to her, as he was given those gifts to remember them by.

As she put the finishing touches to her fruit, she spoke to Sora. Knowing full well he wouldn't be able to hear her, but also knowing the sentiment would somehow reach him anyway. Just like it did back at Traverse Town.

"You'd better get back here soon, Sora. Otherwise I'm coming after you. Our Hearts are connected, my Heart is a keychain to yours." Her voice broke as the full weight of having to stay here without him hit her. "And yours is a keychain to mine."

* * *

Author's Notes: I hope you've enjoyed reading through all of these, I just want to thank you so much for reading all of this. Even if you never leave a review, it means so much to me that this held your interest enough to reach the end.


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